There's Wisdom in Christmas Spirits
by ejosephinemachine
Summary: The Marauders are divided over whether to pay a visit to an isolated Lily Evans when she is back home for Christmas. James might have talked himself out of it, but there's a funny taste in his pumpkin juice and he's suddenly feeling differently. Runs alongside my larger fanfic 'Remember and Forget'
1. Chapter 1

**After depriving myself of writing a Petunia meets Marauders over the Christmas holidays scene for my current main fanfic 'Remember and Forget', and disappointing those lovely people who commented on that story saying they were looking forward to seeing it, I felt a bit bad.**

**So this is the other end of that absence. To apologise.**

**For Context: Before the Christmas holidays, James and the others had joked about visiting Muggle Cokeworth and 'improving' Lily's dull, Petunia-filled holiday. After a series of letters between Lily and James, Christmas day has arrived, and James has talked himself out of following through and going to see her. **

**His friends do not support this idea.**

"Mate! We are definitely going!" a whisper cut through James' half-awake haze.

"No." he grumbled, shoving his face into the pillow.

"C'mon! We've got to!" Peter whispered, and James could hear the glee in his voice.

"No."

"Pete, let it go!"

A voice of reason, James thought thankfully, as Remus joined the debate, murmuring sleepily from his bed in the corner. Peter was being pretty insistent that they should go to a certain Northern town to visit a certain ginger girl.

It wasn't really a debate. Peter had been making ever more elaborate and ever more desperate speeches for the past few days about the positives of leaving the Potter house and bribing either an elderly relative or a pliant House Elf to apparate them to the point on the map that Lily had pointed out on the train. To each of these arguments, James had simply responded 'no'.

It wasn't that he didn't want to see Lily. Lily was great, and probably she would, though he knew she wouldn't admit it, appreciate a visit to lighten the burden of her apparently-horrible sister and her isolation from the wizarding world.

Really, Lily was amazing. James didn't think that he could have borne spending even a few weeks away from his friends and magic, though he supposed that spending time with her family might make up for it. Still, it was more than James would have wanted to deal with.

But, it was Christmas, and not only would it be incredibly rude to turn up unannounced on Christmas, but he had a full day of unwrapping presents and eating food and greeting all his family, who were invited, along with his mates, to the usual oversized Christmas dinner.

Lily was great, really, but she was probably not going to be happy to see him, and he didn't want to make her life any harder.

So, he had immediately said no, and he was still saying no, three hours later. It was only now that Remus had decided to weigh in, and James was flagging a little. Peter could be surprisingly persistent. People always seemed to think that Pete was the innocent one, who followed along where Sirius and James led, but he was probably responsible for a fair quarter of their ideas, and could be pretty bloody-minded when he wanted to do something.

But James could be as stubborn as anyone when he needed to be, and he needed to be.

James turned on his side on his bed, hoping that Pete would let him go back to sleep. He wasn't the sort to sleep in on Christmas morning. He had always been a jumping-on-peoples-beds-at-half-five person, who insisted on presents being opened the second they woke up. But if it would get Pete of the subject of their potential visit to Cokeworth, he would sleep straight through to the New Year.

He ought to have known that he wouldn't be allowed to get away with that. As if sensing an opportunity to torment James, Sirius surfaced from his dead sleep, and got himself involved. James knew that he absolutely would not be going to see Lily. He certainly wasn't going to tell them that he had been writing to her, and that he had sent her a letter straight back after her owl had arrived just after midnight.

He knew his friends well enough to know that they would make something out of his staying up waiting for a letter from her. So, he just wasn't going to give them the chance.

"What are we talking about?" Sirius asked, propping himself up on his elbows, yawning.

"We're discussing the best way to get to Cokeworth, to visit Lily."

Sirius looked questioningly at James, trying to gauge his friends feelings on the matter. James, who had rolled back over on hearing Peter speak, shook his head mutinously. Sirius immediately smiled in that way that James knew meant trouble for him.

"So, Prongs? What are we thinking? Brooms?" Sirius laughed, using the nicknames that they had invented years ago. They had stopped using them so much recently, it felt a bit immature and after a particularly close call with almost being discovered by McGonagall, they weren't too keen to advertise nicknames that referenced their animagi – illegal animagi – forms. Sirius, as expected, was the least cautious, and still used the names occasionally.

"No." James muttered, sticking to his refrain, feeling ever more worried that even if he didn't go, they might.

"Would you two stop? Lily would kill you, James is right."

There was some quiet arguing that James didn't hear. He decided to give them a minute to work out what he had realised ages ago. Even if he wanted to see Lily, he didn't want to annoy her, and turning up on her doorstep on Christmas with her magic-hating sister in close proximity. He couldn't help but feel that if he ever met Petunia, and she was as bad as Lily, and Jac, had suggested, he would find it very difficult to be polite. How could you not like magic? Moreover, how could you not like Lily? She was one of the kindest people he knew, not to mention clever, and funny too. Her sister must see that, mustn't she?

When the sun was properly up, the boys decided that it was an acceptable time to go and get their presents. James was mostly looking forward to this, but he knew that one present sat under that tree, which both his parents and his mates were pretty insistent should remain under the tree. It was tiny, and wrapped beautifully, and it was from Lily. Still, presents were presents and it was hard not to be excited about it. He noticed as his parents, having apparently heard the inevitable noise of four boys moving through a very old house, emerged from their room that the prospect of Cokeworth had not been raised again. Not sure whether to be thankful that they weren't discussing it anymore, or worried that they weren't discussing it anymore, he continued down the stairs and headed straight to the main living room where the presents had been piled up under the tree. When everyone was assembled, the presents were distributed into individual piles with the flick of a wand. James felt a rush of affection for his parents when he saw that Sirius, Peter and Remus all had as many as he did, wrapped in the same paper his parents had used for his own. They had made sure that they didn't feel like guests, especially Sirius. Both Remus and Peter had been working on their parents for months to get them to let them spend Christmas with James' family, but Sirius was a resident, he was as much a part of this house as James, and his mum had worked so hard, ever since James had sent a letter to his mum mentioning Sirius' parents and their attitude, to make Sirius feel comfortable in the Potter household.

"Don't be too long, dinner will start at one, but the family will be here sooner." His mum called after the four boys as they climbed back up the stairs, each of them laden down with a bundle of presents. 'The family' was how Mrs. Potter referred to the wider portion of her husband's family. There weren't a lot of Potters, to be fair, but the few that there were made up for limited numbers with personalities. There was Uncle Elpheus, whose laugh was closer to a scream and who had been known to turn dull conversationalists into ducks. Aunt Isadora, who always smelled like liquorice and who lived on a canal boat. James wasn't embarrassed by his family, they were the right side of eccentric, and could always be relied upon for entertainment value. He was looking forward to Christmas dinner among them. Still, he was glad that there were a few hours between then and now to play a few games of miniature Quidditch with his new model pitch, and eat enough chocolate to make his dinner absolutely sickening.

"Pass it! You idiot, he's waiting!" James yelled, as one of his chasers whizzed towards the hoops, towards Sirius' defence, despite the presence of a teammate. This was their third game, and James was already proving as skilled at miniature Quidditch as the real version. He used to have a toy pitch, but it had gotten lost or broken long ago. Peter and Remus, having lost the coin toss, had gone to get food and were just getting back, having taken a little longer to try and hide their supplies from a frantic Mrs. Potter. They reached the room, and tipped the food out on the bed, next to where James was sitting. He took one of the tall glasses of pumpkin juice that Pete was balancing, and focussed back on the game. He just about choked when he took a gulp and realised it was decidedly stronger than pumpkin juice. When he looked around, Pete just shrugged.

"It's Christmas!"

"Fair enough…" James nodded and took another drink. After all, he was right, it was Christmas.

It was about an hour later, and an indeterminate number of 'pumpkin juices' later, James was feeling the spirit of the season. He had played at least five more games of mini-Quidditch, he had eaten enough chocolate to make him feel sick, and now he was leading a chorus of carolling. None of his three friends were very gifted at singing, but they made up for it with volume. It would have been hard for James' mood to be deflated, he was feeling extremely merry, but then, just as he was starting another carol, Peter managed it. With a glint in his eye, he turned breezily to Sirius, a smirk on his face.

"So, when do you think that we can leave?"

"I don't know, Pete!" Sirius said, in mock-nonchalance, that even in his inebriated state, James could tell was rehearsed. However, thanks to said state, James wasn't in full enough possession of his wits to avoid the obvious trap and he loudly responded.

"What d'you mean leave? Where do you lot think your going?"

"To see Evans, obviously… what's the place called? Coalworth?" Sirius asked, smiling out of the side of his mouth and looking at James with interest and amusement.

"Cokeworth." James supplied immediately, muttering as he blinked furiously, feeling unreasonably embarrassed.

"Right, yeah… The question is not so much when, as how?"

"What d'you mean?" Peter asked.

"Well, we're not exactly capable of apparating herself, I doubt Evans' house is connected by Floo and brooms could take all day."

"Hmm… fair point. This requires a bit of thought. What if-"

James realised, in a sort of delayed reaction, that they were acting as if he had agreed to this, as if he was in any way going to allow this to happen. He was not.

"Wait… no! We're not going anywhere!"

"Oh, c'mon!" Sirius whined, and threw a dark, irritated look to Peter and Remus.

James immediately launched into a rather mumbling, slightly tangential speech about the reasons not to go to see Lily. All the things he was saying were, more or less, the things that he had reasoned to himself earlier. It was rude, it was Christmas and it might annoy Lily. He didn't want to be seen as rude, he didn't want to ruin Christmas and he certainly didn't want to annoy or upset Lily. So, for those reasons and many more besides, he would not let himself be talked into going.

As he picked his cloak off the hook at the back door and handed cloaks to his three friends, he nodded vaguely to himself. He was sure that this was a good idea. He wasn't sure whether it was the several extra drinks that he had taken in the interim, or just the fact that it was so obviously a brilliant idea, but suddenly, going to Cokeworth on Christmas day seemed like the best idea he had ever had.

And that included the time he had first thought of flooding the corridor to stop them having to go to a Charms class last year for which none of them had done the very important and very elaborate homework.

That had been a very, very good idea, which should have indicated the brilliance of this one.


	2. Chapter 2

Within ten minutes, guests began arriving, and James only just managed to hide them at the front door, for a quick exit, before Great-Aunt Althea apparated and forced a round of welcome kisses on the four dismayed boys. They were going to have to make their escape between the arrival of all the guests and the serving of dinner. They would actually only have about an hour before the chatting and exchanging stories between the adults lapsed and the dinner was served. Had he been perhaps a little more sober-minded, he would have realised that it wasn't practical to escape and head to the North of England for an hour, but, being decidedly not sober, he thought that an hour was more than enough time.

He really didn't need to worry about the organisation. It was amazing what his friends could do when they put their minds to it. He wasn't aware of when the planning started. He was a little too… drunk, to be honest. That was why he didn't question it when Peter swept him away to the kitchen on the pretence of getting snacks, despite dinner being already half-cooked. He stumbled along after his friend, smiling perhaps a little too widely at the relatives he passed, and didn't see, in his haze, Sirius approaching the notoriously-willing-to-go-along-with-a-prank Uncle Al. If he had seen that, the sensible side of James Potter might have overwhelmed the alcohol and he would have intervened to separate the two most capricious people he knew. However, he didn't see it, and Remus, who had been somewhat commandeered by Great-Aunt Althea, was indisposed to run his usual interference with Sirius' most dangerous plans.

James wasn't aware of the plans being made away from his view, but by the time he and Peter had sneak-eaten enough of the appetisers to ruin their appetites for dinner, the wheels were set in motion. At the sound of the kitchen door swinging open, James panicked a little and threw his handful of cocktail sausages over his shoulder.

"Right, then, where are you off to?" Uncle Al asked, rubbing his hands together gleefully as he searched through the cupboards, eventually locating a bottle that he almost completely emptied into a mug and took a swig from. "What is it, Coal-something?"

"Cokeworth!" Sirius hissed, looking suspiciously around as if the kettle might rat them out to Mrs. Potter.

"Not a problem…" Uncle Al nodded gravely. "Where's that, then?"

James nodded thoughtfully, then realised it was a question. He was just trying to think of where it actually was that Lily had pointed to when Peter produced a map, a map that had been with them on the Hogwarts Express when they had actually tried to figure out how far away everyone lived from one another. James simply watched in astonishment as the plan unfolded before him.

"So…" Al said, looking gleefully around at the group. "Who lives there?"

"Her name is Lily…" Sirius supplied, looking excitedly at James.

"Oh… Lily… So, whose girlfriend is she?"

James just about choked on his own tongue. Sirius decided to exploit the coughing silence that followed, and pointed at James. By the time James had recovered, Uncle Al had moved on to discuss timing and James couldn't say anything to deny what Sirius had said, not without it being weird.

So, he just stayed quiet and did nothing. Well, he ate another cocktail sausage, but mostly he just stood still, and listened as they discussed the plans. He also tried desperately to stop blushing at the fact that someone thought Lily was his girlfriend. He couldn't help imagining the situation when he arrived at Lily's house, with Uncle Al in tow, and if – or rather when – he inevitably said something horrifically embarrassing, how he would feel.

But right now, feeling so sure that his plan was a good one, it was hard to stay embarrassed for too long.

Side-Along Apparition was never pleasant. That was just a fact. James had first experienced it when he was much younger, holding on to his father's hand and being swept away from their hallway, and reappearing miles away with a dizzy lightness in his head and an inability to stand up straight for about twenty minutes after. That experience had never really changed, and James always found himself feeling terrible after he apparated. He was usually better than Sirius, who had thrown up on occasion. It was in fact one of the times in his life that he looked more composed than Sirius.

Still, he was about to try Side-Along Apparition drunk with several other people. He was pretty sure that this was about to be the least dignified moment of his life, but he couldn't quite muster up any kind of concern about that. Lily would be so pleased to see them, and it sounded like she had been having a pretty tough time with her sister, that he just wanted her to feel better. It was how he used to feel when Sirius went home for the holidays to his parents' house and James would feel so guilty about enjoying himself while reading the defiantly cheerful letters that Sirius would write.

He just wanted his friends to be happy at Christmas, and thought that the best way to do that would be to turn up on her doorstep with three friends and a drunk Uncle. Alright, so his Uncle wasn't the only drunk one, but Al seemed to have been sneaking whiskies since long before he had arrived, and was definitely past the stage of mature adult decision-making. Fortunately, thought James as he supressed a hiccup, he was well capable of making good choices, and he knew that this was a good choice. How could it not be?

It was hard to remember that this had been a good decision when he was bent-double in an icy-cold alley, trying desperately to hold on to his appetisers. Sirius, thankfully, had displayed his usual form and had fallen to the ground in a faint. James was trying to steady himself, both his feet and his nerves, when a voice drifted around the corner, the sharp tone of the speaker carrying it loud through the silence of the otherwise abandoned street.

"Just-go-away! I hate you for this, why do you have to be such a FREAK!" the girl's voice, full of contempt and anger was met by silence, whoever she had spoken to wasn't willing to respond it seemed.

James put out a hand and hushed the group. Uncle Al was flailing his arms, trying to stay upright, but failing as he stumbled backwards and fell into a pile of rubbish bags, the bottle in his hands clinking against the gravel of the alley as it rolled away from him. James desperately shushed his friends, pretty certain that they wouldn't be able to explain why they were lurking in an alley to whatever Muggles were in the street at that moment.

The voice was soon joined by a male voice, but James couldn't really hear what he was saying over the sound of Sirius retching, and gesturing angrily at James when James tried to quieten him.

Then, a third voice, one obviously distinct from the others came drifting over to James, dragging his attention away from Sirius who was shakily standing up.

"It's probably a cat."

It wasn't exactly a big sentence, it wasn't exactly shocking, but it was enough to sober James up in an instant.

He suddenly realised that this had been a very, very stupid idea.

There was Lily, having just been called a freak by her sister, probably having the most horrible day of her life, and he was just going to swan in and make everything ten times more difficult. This was a terrible idea.

What would he even say?

"Hi, Lily! Merry Christmas! Why don't you introduce us to your very angry, magic-hating sister?"

No, this was one of his worse ideas. Though, now that he thought about it, he had been pretty adamant that he wasn't going to visit Lily. How had that changed?

He thought about it for a moment and realised that his support for this idea had come exclusively from those strange, obviously-alcoholic-now-that-he-thought-about-it pumpkin juices that Peter had kept bringing him all morning.

He had been tricked.

He needed to get out of here. He couldn't bear the thought of seeing Lily right now. He didn't want her thinking that he had been listening in on what was probably one of her worst moments. It had been less than half a year since they had stopped being openly antagonistic towards one another. He knew that that wasn't exactly true, he had never been all that antagonistic towards Lily, except when she had put on that irritating, smug voice and acted superior. Still, it hadn't been very long since they had started talking to one another civilly and he really liked being friends with her. Besides anything else, she was funny and really very entertaining when she started to panic about something insignificant that she inevitably blew out of all proportion.

He didn't want her to remember moments fighting with his sister when she was talking to him. He didn't need another negative association to add to the numerous negative moments that she must remember from when they were younger and James had been a little more… reckless and inconsiderate, and a great deal more prone to setting things on fire.

He had to gather up his friends, get his drunk Uncle out of the rubbish and get out of that alley before Lily had a chance to investigate what the strange noises had been. He was prepared for a bit of a fight from his friends, but when he turned and hissed to them that they had to go, both Remus and Peter nodded and started to pull Uncle Al, who was mumbling incoherently about rabbits, out of the rubbish. Even Sirius, when James picked him up off the ground and looked at him pleadingly, nodded weakly.

It was a mark of the strength of their friendship that Sirius didn't protest against apparating, even while he was still green and weak from the after-effects of the last apparition. James pulled him forward, and grabbed Peter for support. Sirius was quite a dead weight and James needed all the help he could get. Pete and Remus were holding up Uncle Al, who didn't seem to be completely insensible, merely sporting a twisted ankle and a slight vague look on his face.

Praying that he wouldn't get splinched, he braced himself, hissed to Uncle Al to take them home. He got one last view of the alley, the ordinary, muggle alley, and then they were, thankfully, gone in a twisting flash of light and colours. After a second loud crack that would be attributed in the surrounding houses to an errant cracker or a malfunctioning Christmas light filled the air, the alley was once again empty. It was no different to it had been before, except for one glass whiskey bottle faintly rattling as it rolled to a stop next to the bin bags.

Lily never saw the bottle when she made her way down the alley only a few moments later. She had been so sure upon hearing it that someone, possibly even four people, had turned up in spite of all her protests.

As James patted Sirius on the back, feeling increasingly guilty for putting his poor friend through apparating twice in quick succession, he was feeling sure that he had made the right choice.

It was definitely better that Lily didn't see them today. She didn't need that. He would see her soon, after all, the New Year was only around the corner.


End file.
